10th November 1970, Tuesday

[Graeme]

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[Alan]

Elvis Shows Off His Sense Of Humor

      By John L. Wasserman
      San Francisco Chronicle
      November 13, 1970
      
Whatever it is — and no amount of analysis can pin it down — Elvis Presley still has more of it than any entertainer alive. His concert at the Oakland Coliseum Arena on Tuesday night was a lesson in charisma.
      
I have dealt in the past with Elvis as a singer (merely competent) and Elvis as business (big) but, lest it appear I have nothing nice to say for the good ol’ boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, let us worry today about Elvis as a performer. As such, even given that most of the audience is pre-sold, Presley is really magnificent to watch in action. Not the least of his appeal is his sense of humor, which is evident both in corny jokes and — more importantly — in his own self-image. In a way that was not as apparent in eithcr show I saw a few months ago at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, Elvis takes his work seriously but not himself.
      
At times on Tuesday night, Presley’s perspective of his own presence seemed almost to bring an aura of quaintness to the whole thing, as if the entire program was arrayed on an antimacassar. Yet perform he did — exciting to his fans, fascinating to those less involved.
      
The show opened with fast bits by the Imperials (a group Elvis erroneosly believes to be “the number one gospel group in the nation”) and the Sweet Inspirations — who may be the best female soul group now practising. This was followed by Sammy Shore, the comedian who was with Elvis in Vegas (as were the two singing groups) and his own special and lovable brand of half-wit humor. Shore is the kind of comedian who still makes jokes about not being able to tell apart long-haired men from women. The crowd was the Kind of crowd which laughed and applauded at that joke.
      
At this point, 45 minutes in, an intermission was called — mass groans and the availability of souvenir programs, posters and other types of th¢ trade was announced. Nine formidable guards gathered at the foot of the sfage. Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ Svengali, wandered around in an electric blue sports coat and the babble subsided as the magic moment approached. A thousafid fingers went to the shutter-button of a thousand Kodak Instamatics; 28,000%yes strained tosee —as KYA put it when advertising the new Presley film — ‘Him’.
      
The singer bounded on stage, in a high-collared, white-with-fringes suit, tore into ‘That’s All Right’ or whatever it is, and bedlam broke loose. Beside the predictable shrieks, somehow less convincing with age, one measurement of a star is flashbulbs. And only the superstars can turn a darkened arena into daylight — and keep it there.
      
He shook his hair, waggled his leg, went to his knees, threw out his arms, lept to, lept from, cut the air to ribbons with karate chops (one of his hobbies), removed his guitar, removed his belt, removed his scarf, persuaded his shirt-front to fall open, but did not remove his pants.
      
He bumped. He ground. He fell over backwards (quite intentionally), kidded the girl singers, kidded his accompanists and shook. He played the audience like Horowitz plays piano and sang ‘You've Lost That Loving Feeling’ (his most effective number), ‘Love Me Tender’, ‘Proud Mary’ (with a tribute to another East Bay resident, Willie Mae Thornton), ‘I Got A Woman’, the marvelous ‘Polk Salad Annie’, the horrible ‘How Great Thou Art’, ‘Johnny B. Goode’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.
      
It all happens again tonight at the Cow Palace. Even at $5, $7.50 and $10 a ticket the price is right. But if you don’t have one already, forget it. The Cow Palace is sold out. Twenty-seven thousand tickets and $200,000 for two shows. Not bad for a merely competent singer.
      

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Elvis Has The Movements Down Pat

      By Philip Elwood
      San Francisco Examiner
      November 11, 1970
      
He was there — Elvis was — shimmering in the Oakland Coliseum’s spotlights right on time last night. It was just after 9.30 p.m. The house-lights dimmed, the shrill screams rose in pitch and intensity, and out bounded Elvis. He was adorned with a white bell-bottom leather jumpsuit, flared high-back collar, brass flat-top rivet sequins, fringed belt, red scarf and he still has the magnificent, clawing catlike stance. When Elvis got up on the gigantic high platform it was the Fourth of July all over again as thousands of flashbulbs blinked through the hall.
      
Elvis was not alone on stage. There were 37 helpers: nine supporting singers, his own rhythm sextet, and a 21-piece orchestra and its director. But Elvis takes charge. Everything is not just part of his act; it’s part of him. When he sings, they wail with him; when he dances, splits, bumps and grinds, the whole stage (and indeed the audience) are an integral part of everything he does.
      
The Elvis movements are rhythmic and sure-footed, so smooth and sexual that they still seem spontaneous. And his singing is still more style than voice. But with that style and sensuousness Presley does wonders. His scarf came off with one casy swirl, and his wide belt seemed to casually slip to the floor, amidst the screams of ecstatic anticipation. He acknowledged the presence of Creedence Clearwater Revival by inserting a bit of ‘Proud Mary’ into the otherwise tightly-structured program.
      
The whole evening was a bombastic one-man triumph and a significant tribute to Presley’s quite unusual and magnetic stage-appeal.
      

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JOHN FOGERTY: I had just received my honourable discharge from the United States Army. This was the height of
the Vietnam War. I went right in the house and came up wit the first line — “Left a good job in the city.” I wrote the rest of “Proud Mary’ right there with that feeling in my mind. When I got to the part “rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river,” I realised when it was done that I'd written a standard. Elvis was a lot bigger motivating factor on me than I usually let on. The guy was the role-model for every other male act that came along. It was a great honour to have Elvis record “Proud Mary’. I sort of liked his version, but it was more of a compliment that he had done it. I saw Elvis play live at Oakland Coliseum. We were touring with Concerts West and a guy named Tom Ilulett was promoting Elvis too. We heard all of these Elvis stories. Elvis seemed very nervous and preoccupied that night, but of course I loved the show.

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For this first concert of the tour, the members of Creedence Clearwater Revival were in the audience, and Elvis tried to perform their composition ‘Proud Mary”. The song was obviously not rehearsed and was cut short after Elvis stumbled over the lyrics. As Elvis commented on stage that night: “That’s enough. Creedence Clearwater Revival are here tonight and I did that for them.”
      

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